


Going for a Guardian

by keysburg



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Bounty Hunter, F/M, Gen, Gramosian society, Gramosians, Knowhere, Peter being a lady's man, canon violence, peter quill's past crimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-20
Updated: 2015-01-20
Packaged: 2018-03-19 10:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3606936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keysburg/pseuds/keysburg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter's past crimes still come back to haunt him.  Gramos wants revenge for their Duchess...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Going for a Guardian

Maurissa adjusted her long wig carefully and added just a little bit more glue under the edge of the right temple.  It was a strange change from the bald look of her people, but it wasn’t as unsettling as the skin dye she had to use.  She barely recognized herself with the milky, pale blue tint that now clung to her skin.  This was the worst.  The skin dye might last two months or more, obscuring her glorious natural blue-black skintone, but it was unavoidable.  Her mark was… intimately familiar with the natural dark skin and baldness of the Gramosian people, and she wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near him in her normal appearance.  She had considered a shorter, easier to manage wig than the silver blonde wig now falling halfway to her waist.  However, her research indicated Terran preferences ran towards longer hair on women.  It made a certain sort of sense.  If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Her disguise had to be the very best if it was going to work to snag her bounty, and it needed to work.  The peaceful nature of Gramosian society meant that there wasn’t that much work for a bounty hunter, even a good one, and she had to maintain her contract with her planet’s Court.  Political bodies were such a delicious source of conflict, and conflict meant bounties of all kinds.

She could always pick up more work among her Kree clients, but despite her unusual choice of work, she found dealing with the Kree difficult.  Individual jobs generally weren’t that bad, but they always involved supporting the war-like ambition of one aggressive warlord or another.  Or gathering materials for their distasteful habit of trying to alter and mutate other races with Kree genetics and cybernetics. Their militaristic society where might-makes-right was essentially the opposite of the peaceful monarchy of her people.  There were much fewer misunderstandings when on a job for the Court on Gramos.

Besides, unlike some of her other jobs, this was a matter of pride.  The scoundrel she was after had violated her Duchess, and that could not be allowed to stand. She put the glue down and went back to studying the dossier on her target.  Information on him was much easier to get now that the fool Xandarians had elevated him to the level of a hero. Xandar was another militaristic culture, albeit more advanced than the Kree. They still valued technology and conflict far more than Gramosians, who instead valued creativity and artistry.  It came in handy right now though. All the profiles Xandarian media created on their hero had allowed her to accumulate enough background on the target to make it possible to bring him to justice.  She studied his picture again, and snorted.  Star-lord, he called himself.  Such a self-aggrandizing attitude was to be expected by a Terran, and a Terran raised by Ravagers at that.  

It would make him easy to manipulate. The fact that he was handsome would make it easier for her to do it with a straight face.  You could almost see why the Duchess would debase herself for his attentions. Almost--but no, it was still unforgivable.  The laws against manipulation of the Gramosian monarchy were there for their own protection, so they couldn’t fall sway to outsider influence.  The whole reason the ruling family had been voted into the Court was because they held a vision of Gramosian society that most agreed to work towards.  If that vision was shifted by outside influence before the next election period, it would undermine the stability of the entire planet. Particularly if that influence was that of a cocky, headstrong, reckless Terran like this Peter Quill.  As limiting as it was, during their rule members of the monarchy just couldn’t be involved with others.

Flipping the blasted hair over her shoulder, Maurissa continued to read the accumulated profile.  He had a pretty rigid modus operandi when it came to pick up women, which would also be easy to manipulate.  She had the profile almost memorized now, along with the life size hologram of the target.  He had a few microbules on her, but not too many.  The little video she had picked up showed that he was pretty agile but she hoped her slimmer build would make her faster.  It was hard to say.  She added the knockout serum to her capture kit, just in case.  

A day later Maurissa finally sat in one of the smaller bar rooms at Jemiah’s Boot, just off to the left of the main entrance and largest room, which contained the gambling tables. Quill was commonly spotted here these days, and she had received information that he had business on Knowhere.  It wasn’t the ideal set up, since she had to keep scaring off other parties that were interested in her disguise.  But it did have a mirror behind the bar in which she could watch the main entrance, and there weren’t any gambling tables in here so it was a bit quieter.  From the menu she selected a bottle of distilled ethanol aged in a wooden cask made from a tree the Xandarians grew specifically for this purpose.  The wood added flavor to the drink.  It was the closest thing the bar had to a certain Terran drink. And it also came in a sealed bottle, even if the brown color was somewhat off putting when compared with the green, blue and white beverages the other patrons swilled.  The sealed bottle was important: for the ethanol to work on the mark’s Terran biology, it needed to be fairly pure and not watered down or cut with fillers.

Maurissa sat, sipping the drink slowly. She had just neatly severed the tip of a tentacle of an impolite A’askvarian when the door opened and her mark finally swaggered in.  Followed by a tall green woman, a taller, big dude with red tattoos scarring his upper body, and a humanoid tree. Damn, he brought the rest of the so-called Guardians of the Galaxy.  If the mirror was angled down a little bit more she’d probably be able to see the hairy rodent creature.  This would make things more difficult, but she had planned for it.  First, to attract the target’s attention.  Staring through the mirror, she waited until his eyes scanned over her way.  His eyes locked with hers, noticing her attention.  Slowly, she raised an eyebrow and then gave a little smirk… and then dropped her eyes.  It was so hard not to look back up in the mirror to see what was happening, but she busied herself signaling her contractor in the main room via her telewatch.  At her signal he was to approach the other Guardians and give them the full fanboy treatment, complete with buying them drinks.  Lots of drinks.

“Well, pretty lady, I’d buy you a drink, but it looks like you’re all set there.”  Peter approached her alone, just as she intended.  She smiled a small smile and purposely noticed the breadth of his chest and how his t-shirt stretched over it, to make herself blush a little.  

“True, but since I bought the entire bottle, I’d be pleased to share it with the legendary Star-lord.” He was sliding onto the barstool next to her but she caught a slight hesitation when she named him.

“You know me, huh?  I don’t owe you money, do I?”  

“Oh hardly,” she replied.  “I was on Xandar when the terrorist attack happened. In one of the underwater cities, so I missed most of the damage, but if the attack had been successful, I would have died.  If you hadn’t been there.”   This was a lie of course, constructed to appeal to his ego.  It seemed to miss the mark though as now he looked distinctly uncomfortable. Maybe she overplayed the fangirl bit.

“Oh, uh, yeah.  Um.  Well.” he stammered, astonishing her.  Thinking quickly, she started apologizing

“Oh, dear, I’m sorry.  If it brings up bad memories… I can’t imagine what it was like to be there--how about that drink?”  she waved over the bartender, signalling for another glass.  He relaxed slightly as she poured a generous glass, but then he picked it up and downed it in two gulps.

“Yeah, well, it was… hey, that is good stuff! Is this some sort of special occasion?” Seizing on the change of subject, Maurissa gave a throaty little laugh.

“As a matter of fact, yes.  A… business investment I made is about to pay off big time.  So I am celebrating.  But celebrating alone isn’t too much fun. “  She was already pouring him more, and topped off her own glass while she was at it.  

“A girl like you doesn’t seem like she’d exactly want for company,” he said a bit skeptically, running his eyes down her body.  

“Oh sure, but its finding the right company that’s difficult.  I was told Knowhere was full of rogues and outlaws that know how to have a good time, but so far tonight I’ve only been approached by barely literate miners who have no manners whatsoever.  Not exactly the dashing company a girl dreams of.”  At this she fluttered her eyelashes, hoping she wasn’t laying it on too thick. Peter smirked at her then, and picked up his glass.  

“I guess its a good thing for both of us that I showed up, then.”  

“Oh?” she queried. “ Do you think you’re up to the task of _entertaining_ me?” Peter finally relaxed fully then, smirk broadening into a full blown grin.  Flirty banter was apparently more comfortable for him than dwelling on his so-called heroics, and Maurissa made a note to keep it light.  

“Well, I can start with a tale and you can decide for yourself if it qualifies me as the type of entertainment you are seeking.  I was on a planet - I can’t say which one… “ Peter launched straight into a well-practiced and probably half-falsified tale.  She knew he was spinning yarns but damn if he wasn’t so charming that it became easy to laugh at the right places, blush at the right places, and generally non-verbally signal interest.  No wonder her Duchess had end up so smitten. At that thought, Maurissa felt her resolve strengthen.  She might like him, but he was a dangerous man--dangerous to Gramos, and he had to be punished for it.

One tale ran into another and she kept his glass topped off. His tolerance was high but after about half the bottle his speech finally started to stick a bit, and high spots of color appeared on his pale Terran cheeks, accenting his sculpted cheekbones.  Time to see if she could move this to a more private location. One where his friends weren’t in the other room. When he finished with a joke, she laughed heartily while he drank.  As he set his glass down, she reached for the box on his waist.  

“And what is this?” she asked. “Another tool to help you out of trouble?”  

“Oh, no, this is just for… entertainment.  It plays music and you listen to it. Here…”  Just as described by the duchess, and his other entanglements, he took a headpiece from around his neck and placed it on her head, covering her ears with the fuzzy bits.  He hit a button on the waist box and she heard a low throaty voice start to sing. _Well I’ve never been to Spain, but I kind of like the music.  Say the ladies are insane there.  And they sure know how to use it_.   She didn’t have to hide her pleasure, more at the way the night was going than at the music.  His profile indicated that this was a pretty standard seduction tactic of his, which means she had him right where she wanted him.  The music kicked in on the second verse and she began to shift her hips in her seat, just a little, while still listening intently.  The song he picked for her was a tale of ports unvisited, which seemed suggestive and a bit presumptuous to her.  Perfect.

Peter leaned in and moved one fuzzy disc from her ear, moving his lips close to ask under his breath.

“Do you want to dance?”  This was too easy.  At that she pulled away a bit, looked down, bit her lip, looked up to meet his eyes, and placed her hand on his leather-clad thigh.  

“I had something else in mind.” she replied, holding the eye contact.

“Okay, babe. Did you have a location in mind too?”  His cocky grin pleased her and infuriated her at the same time.  

“Mmm.  I have a room across the street.” Maurissa raised her eyebrow just a bit, giving the same challenge as she had in the mirror. He picked up the bottle from the bar.

“Lead on, then.”

She held her breath until they were outside the Boot and across the street.  There were no good contingencies right now if his companions saw them leave, but when she glanced into the pit the fuzzy rodent, Rocket, was deep in an argument with the pit boss, Gamora trying to calm them both before it got physical.  Drax was laughing at them.  

The hotel across the street wasn’t much, but it was clean.  No one paid them any attention as they went through the lobby and into the elevator. The doors had barely closed when Quill turned to press her against the wall and kissed her, hard.  Maurissa was startled but managed to turn her little gasp into a chuckle and returned the kiss, thinking furiously.  He wasn’t as drunk as she had hoped and that would make it difficult to get the drop on him.  She hadn’t let herself dwell on how close she might have to get to repeating the Duchess’s mistake in order to complete her mission.  While she was experienced with such tactics, somehow the idea of using them on Peter was too… distracting.  Best be quick about it.

The elevator opened and she walked all the way to the tiny room at the end of the hall.  Next to the freight elevator.  She keyed it open, letting him in, closed the door.  He was already reaching for her, so she stepped in close, hooking her right foot behind his left ankle while her left arm went across his throat.  He went down, sprawling backwards on the bed with her on top of him, as she intended.  But somehow he grabbed her left hand and pulled it over his head, while rolling them both over! Somehow he grabbed her other wrist too and now had both Maurissa’s arms pinned above her head, his weight holding her down.  Yep, he was definitely not drunk enough for her to try that.  And faster than her, despite his size. Shit.

“Hey, hey now, what’s with that?” he asked, angry.  

“Oh…” she purred, grinding her hips against his “I just wanted to see if you could take it as well as dish it out.”  He froze at her movement, looking down at her, clearly both aroused and suspicious.  

“Are you shitting me?” he asked, eyes boring into hers.  

“Nope.”  She could only move her head, so she raised it to press a kiss at the corner of his mouth.  Then she lowered her voice, and moving her hips again, and whispered. “I like it when it hurts a little.”

He sat up then, letting go of her arms but his hips still pinning her to the bed.  He looked at her, still not quite convinced, like she was going to be stupid enough to strike at him from this position of weakness.  Instead, she moved her hands down along the bed slowly, and then up his thighs, over his hips, then sliding them under his shirt.  His stomach tightened at the touch of her fingers and she rolled her hips again, keeping eye contact with the entire time. He hesitated, and then shrugged off his jacket.  Still moving slowly, she slid her hands up his back and pulled off his shirt, and then pulled him back down to her and kissed him, hard.  He returned the kiss, and she kept kissing him until he finally relaxed into it, the tension leaving his upper body.  Still kissing, she reached her right hand to the drawer at the side of the bed and slid it open.  She had palmed the knock out serum and was moving her hand back to his side when he broke the kiss and went for the zipper on the front of her dress.  She had to wait until he had gotten it open and bent down to press his lips to her skin before she could tag him with the serum syringe.  At the feel of the prick his head came up, but then the knock out serum went into effect, and he slumped forward.  Back against her chest.  Okay, now he was out and she was pinned.  Excellent.

She waited a few moments to make sure he was really out.  When he started to drool on her, she took that as a sign.  It took a couple tries to get enough momentum, but she managed to roll his limp body over and off her.  Standing up, she went into the bathroom, zipped her dress the rest of the way off, and slipped into a nondescript uniform.  She checked his breathing then, but his chest was rising and falling at a steady but slow rate. She scooted across the hall to the utility closet.  Using a decoding passkey, she let herself in and grabbed the wheeled dirty laundry bin she had left in there earlier.  Back in her room, she parked it right up against the side of the bed. Then she grabbed Peter’s arms and crossed them against his chest.   Grabbing his shoulders she sat him up and then slumped his upper body up over his legs, folding him in half.  Oof, he was heavy.  Bracing her feet against the floor, she grabbed the blanket and pulled.  Fortunately the sheets underneath were worn and slippery and she was able to slowly slide him off the bed.  Whump! His bottom hit the bottom of the bin but otherwise he remained as she positioned him, with the blanket wrapped around him.  Then she removed his telewatch and checked the message history.  Copying similar messages, she scheduled a written message to the the other Guardians to deliver in an hour. _Getting lucky, see you back at the ship in the morning._ Then she tucked the telewatch into the bedframe under the mattress.  Telewatches contained position trackers, and while his was almost certainly blocked, she couldn’t take the chance his team could reactivate it and track him.  She threw his jacket over his head, and then her dress, and stripped the sheets off the bed, throwing them on top.

Her passkey opened the freight elevator and she wheeled the bin in.  It was getting to the point in the evening where most people had gone home and the streets were fairly deserted as she wheeled the bin down alleys to her ship.  Once on board, Maurissa dumped the bin on its side, spilling him onto the floor near the wall.  Pulling the sheet back, she took a moment to study her target.  His hair was curling softly along the side of his face. Unconscious, he looked very young and vulnerable. This was the man that had threatened the stability of an entire plant.  

While clever enough to steal for a living and to defeat one of the greatest warriors of the Kree empire, his cocky attitude and risky behavior had lead him straight into her trap.  Sighing, she rolled him to sit slumped against the wall and pulled down the cuffs attached to the wall by retracting wires and attached them to his wrists.  The holding cell portion of her ship was specially constructed for this, and allowed her to close a captive in.  She set the wire tension to allow him to stand when he woke, and headed for the cockpit.  She escaped the port of Knowhere with no problem and set her autopilot for the two day cruise to Gramos and hit her bunk.  Exhausted but wired, she lay awake.  All had gone mostly to plan. She would avenge her duchess.  But she couldn’t help but feel just a little bad, somehow.  She had only used his nature against him, but it was his nature that ended in the crime against her people. It was like arresting a bird for flying.

She awoke just a couple hours later to a roar.  Peter was awake and hollering.  He had some constitution--she had figured the knockout serum would keep him out a couple more hours.  Ugh, she had slept in the blasted wig.  Taking her time she cleaned up, peeling the wig carefully from the skin.  She dressed in fresh clothes, grabbed a bottle of water and loaded a new syringe with twice the serum as before.  

When she appeared in his eyeline, Peter stopped hollering abruptly. She approached slowly as he studied her.  She watched him note the mark on her skin the wig had left and his eyes widened in understanding.  She stopped one pace from the distance his leashes would give him for the wall, and raised her eyebrow.  She watched carefully as rage passed across his features, followed by hesitation, then cunning, and then he relaxed, a hangdog expression on his face.  

"Why did you kidnap me?"

"You know what your crimes are, Peter Quill. You’re quite intelligent, I think you can figure it out."

"Yes, but my crimes were cleared when I saved Xandar. I haven’t done anything worth this since!"

"Not all planetary systems recognize Xander’s right to clear your crimes, no matter how heroic some may consider your actions.  In this case, I am retrieving you to answer for your illegal manipulation of my Duchess."

"OH COME ON," he groaned, "She came on to me! On most planets it’s considered rude not to respond to a lady’s requests for intimacy! I had no idea I was breaking your law!"

"I do not wish to discuss the violation of my Duchess, scoundrel.  Perhaps 30 years in the tallyoptum mines will teach you to learn local custom first and swagger through misadventures second."

"30 ?!?!? years? Do you know how much of my lifespan that is?" he demanded, outraged.  

"Your sentence is not a negotiation, Quill.  Do you want to drink or relieve yourself right now?"

"Yeah, I need to pee.  Untie me. "

Maurissa laughed, amused.  ”I don’t think so.  Back up against the wall.” 

"What, do you want me to piss on the floor?"   She laughed again, and backed up to the control panel.  She pressed a button and a basin swung out from the wall just below waist level.   He sighed and turned back, unzipping his pants.  When he was finished, she rolled the water bottle along the floor to him.  He smirked at her, and picked it up.

"Is this drugged?" he asked.  

"Nope," she replied "the cooperation juice is in this." She showed him the syringe.  

"You’ll have to come over here to stick me," he observed, and then swigged the water. She nodded at him.

"It’ll go better for you if you just cooperate with it though.  The trip will be more pleasant for both of us."  He had maybe 100 microbules of play in his wrist cuffs but his feet were free.  She knew he wouldn’t just take the poke. It was probably mean to provoke him like this, but she enjoyed watching him attempt to find a the upper hand here.  He drank about half the water and then placed it at his feet.  She approached him slowly, deliberately stepping just inside his reach.  When he swept his leg at hers, she had anticipated it from how he shifted his weight, and she jumped to his right and stuck him in the neck with the plunger.  Then she turned and wrapped her arms around his torso.  His eyes went wide from the prick of the needle and her sudden closeness, and then closed.  He sank into her arms and she slowly lowered him to the floor.

She took a short nap after that, waking before him this time.  She gave him another knockout dose before he woke, and spent the day answering her messages, trying to line up her next job.

She decided it would be better not to engage with Peter again and set up a meal in his holding cell before he woke.  After hesitating, she left the remaining Xandarian liquor in with him too.  She closed the cell off and flicked on the monitor when he woke up about an hour later.  He spent about 20 minutes yelling before he got bored and started to eat.  Unlike the water, the food was drugged, and combined with the liquor he swigged straight from the bottle, he was out again less than an hour later.

The second day she woke with the unmistakable feeling that something was wrong.  Quill was still out, but she dosed him again.  She ran a diagnostic of the ship, everything was functioning properly and she had sufficient fuel.  She checked her comms and the galaxy news, but it was actually a slow news day.  

She was just six hours out of Gramos when a call came in at the same time a ship periphery warning went off.   She answered, and tried to keep her surprise from showing when it turned out to be Gamora and Rocket.

“Hey there, chicky.  We’re prepared to blow you out of the sky immediately if you don’t give us proof Quill is still alive,”  the shorter, furry one said.  

“Who now? What is happening? Who are you guys?”  Maurissa replied, now letting her eyes go wide at the threat.

“Do not attempt to deceive us, Gramosian.  We know that you have Peter Quill aboard your ship, and we wish to speak to him immediately.  If you do not let us confirm his health, I probably won’t be able to keep Rocket here from destroying your ship.  Power down your engines and let us speak to him, or you will regret it.,Gamora said.  

“Well… he’s been sedated for the trip.  It’ll take probably twenty minutes to rouse him,” she tried to stall.  

“You have ten minutes.  Power down your engines.”

“Do I look stupid?”  Maurissa asked.  

“Well, since you mentioned it--” started Rocket.

“Hush! You will do what we say, Gramosian.” Gamora replied.

“No, I don’t think so.” said Maurissa, deciding to call their bluff.  “I’ll reduce my speed by 10 percent as a good will gesture.  And he’ll be ready to talk--in fifteen minutes.”  With that she disconnected the comm and put her head on the desk.  How had they found her?  She had gotten off of Knowhere clean. Even if someone at the port snitched, how did they know where she had headed? Groaning, she got up.  Maybe if she stretched the entire negotiation business out long enough, she could get into Gramosian space and get some back up.  Suddenly the six hours to her planet seemed very long.

She started a timer and retrieved the sedation antagonist.  She dosed Quill and then pulled a seat over just out of his reach and waited. Not five minutes had passed when he started to wake.  It was plenty of time for her to get angry at the situation.  She had been so close, and she might lose her chance to avenge her Duchess after all.  This cocky, reckless scoundrel might escape justice due to his friends.

So when he began to stir, she stood up and slapped him across the face, hard.  She was back in her seat before he could react.

“What the _hell_?”  He sputtered.  

“Good morning, sunshine.  Your friends have found us and would like proof that you are alive.  You will have to speak with them.”

“And what if I don’t cooperate?” he spat, glaring at her.

“Well, only you know if Rocket would be hasty enough to blow us up.  If that’s a risk you’re willing to take, I guess I am too. Now ideally I’d like you to tell them that I caught you fair and square and you agree to go to Gramos and serve your punishment.  But that seems to be a stretch, so I’ll settle for you to just to confirm that you are alive and haven’t suffered any mistreatment.”

“Until just now.” Peter grumbled.  “Well, let’s get on with it.”

“Now Quill, you know how important it is to start negotiations on the right foot.  I got fifteen minutes to wake you, and we have eight and half left.” Maurissa replied.  

He stared her in the eye the whole time.

When the timer beeped she keyed up the comm on a portable hand unit.  It was Drax who answered. “You should not test us, wench.  The raccoon does not listen well when you make him angry.”  

“I’d like to speak with Gamora, Drax.  You know, girl to girl.” Maurissa winked at him. He growled but was shortly replaced.

“Well?” Gamora asked.  Maurissa turned the screen around to face Quill.

“Hey there Gamora, “ he said.  “Man, you are a sight for sore eyes.  But that’s nothing new.”  Quill was captive, bound to a wall, and he still couldn’t quit flirting.  Maurissa smothered a sound of disgust. “How’d you guys find me?” he continued.

“Rocket bugged your pants, in the hem.  After those other four times you were taken hostage…”

“Oh come on now, I only remember two…” Peter interrupted her.  Gamora began to tick off on her fingers.

“There was the time you got us captured by Ravagers.  And then the other time you got us captured by Ravagers, and then the thing on Moran…”

“Well this is cute, “ Maurissa interrupted now, turning the comm back on her. “…but now you can see he’s alive and unhurt.  I will await your offer for how much you will pay to have him returned unharmed.”

“You do not deal with us in good faith.” said Gamora.  “We know you take him to answer for his crimes on Gramos.”

“That’s true, but I am a bounty hunter and a businesswoman.  If you make it worth my while I may turn him over to you instead of the Gramosian Court.  I await your offer.”  Maurissa clicked the comm off again.

“You are lying.” Peter said. “You can’t con a con man.  You won’t deal with my friends, no matter how much money they pony up.”

“ I think you read me better than they do.  Anyway, we shall see. In five hours, we’ll be back in Gramosian space.”  Maurissa left him there then, closing the cell doors and heading for the cockpit.

An hour went by.  An hour she spent watching their trajectory, growing closer to Gramos.  An hour she spent biting her nails, and wondering when they would respond.  Then, finally, the comm buzzed.  Gamora filled the screen.

“You have one final chance to stop your ship willingly and turn Peter over to us, Gramosian.  We will pay you nothing.”

“I don’t really see the profit in stopping, then.” Maurissa replied.  And waited.

“Very well.  You may trigger the device, Rocket.” The comm clicked off.  They wouldn’t really kill them both, would they?  Maurissa held her breath, watching the Milano in the screen. She couldn’t see anything special happening, but then there was a flash of light and--the engine let out a low, groaning motion and ground to a halt.  The ship slowly drifted to a stop.  The comms clicked back on.  

“You’ve been hit with a hyperspace magnetic decoupling device.” Rocket said. “Basically, you’re dead in the water.  Your engine will not restart without a new hyperspace drive.  Prepare to be boarded.”

The Milano had banked around and was slowly coming to rest its port against the port of her ship.  Maurissa screamed in frustration, and grabbed her weapons.  She didn’t care how many of them there were!

They pried her doors open and she jumped from the side, landing on Drax’s shoulders.  She hit him with two knock out syringes and kept moving, spinning around to catch the blade of Gamora’s sword with her own.  But this left her open to Rocket… who took the opportunity to hit her with a stunning taser blast from his gun.   

When she woke, she was laying on the ground with one hand cuffed to the wall.  Starlord stood over her, gloating.   She tried to jump up but ended up pushing herself slowly up instead.  Eventually she gained her feet, swaying a little.  She looked him in the eyes.

“Now don’t worry darling, we sent out a distress call and someone should be here to pick you up long before the fuel for the life support systems runs out. I had fun, but if you want to do this again, you’re going to have to be the one wearing the cuffs.”  Before she could react, he pressed a quick kiss to her lips and then jumped back. She screamed then in wordless frustration but he just grinned at her and walked to where the Milano was still coupled to her ship.  Brown branch-like arms pushed her doors back together and after a moment she heard the Milano decouple and move away.  She was alive, alone, and chained to the wall in her own holding cell.

She slid down the wall to sit on the floor.  In the hours that followed while she awaited rescue she had plenty of time to berate herself for her mistakes.  The Gramosian Court was unlikely to fund another attempt to bring Quill to justice.  She could fund one herself, of course, but with his team he was essentially unstoppable.  She may have to seek out some allies.  Another daughter of Thanos, Nebula, was said to have a beef with Gamora… and there were bound to be others that held a grudge against the so-called Guardians.  As soon as she was back on Gramos, she would reach out, start planning…. Eventually she fell asleep, the cocky grin of Peter Quill still taunting her in her memory.  She would get him.  This wasn’t over…

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Peter Quill's rap sheet, and these comments by James Gunn:
> 
> “I’m getting a lot of questions about Peter Quill’s “sex crime” as listed on his rap sheet in the trailer - “illegal manipulation of a Gramosian Duchess.” Just to explain, Quill was seduced by the Duchess and, as anyone who has been to Gramos knows, it’s illegal for regular folk to be intimate with royalty there. So there you go.”


End file.
